Where Is My Vote? Posters for the Green Movement in Iran

August 30 – September 25, 2010
Reception: Thursday, September 16, 6-8pm

Steven Heller on
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School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents “Where Is My Vote? Posters for the Green Movement in Iran,” an exhibition of 150 political posters by graphic artists world wide created in support of the protests in Iran that followed the 2009 presidential election. The exhibition is the first public viewing of these posters in printed form and was organized by designers Anita Kunz and Woody Pirtle along with Francis Di Tommaso, director of the Visual Arts Gallery, and Steven Heller, author, design historian and co-chair of the MFA Design Department at SVA.

“Where Is My Vote?” highlights the unique role that socially responsible designers can play in rallying support for free speech, and the power of design to inspire political activism. The exhibition features posters by some of the most celebrated graphic artists working today, including R. O. Blechman, Cathie Bleck, Seymour Chwast, Ivan Chermayeff, Milton Glaser, Robert Grossman, Anita Kunz, Yossi Lemel, Jennifer Morla, István Orosz, Woody Pirtle, Andrea Rauch, Ralph Steadman, Gary Taxali, James Victore and Massimo Vignelli, among others.

Following the elections in Iran in the summer of 2009, an Iranian photographer who goes by the name of Green Bird urged graphic artists from all over the world to create posters in support the Green Movement in Iran. One of the artists he approached, Italian designer Andrea Rauch, volunteered to host all of the posters on the web site SocialDesignZine, the blog of the Association of Italian Graphic Designers, where Rauch serves as editor. Over 200 posters have been collected on the site and can be viewed here:

“SocialDesignZine, which has an English language version, was visited by very many Iranians,” commented Rauch, “Friends in Iran told us that many of our posters were ‘self-printed’ and used at the demonstrations. At the end of September 2009, when the number of posters submitted numbered more than 100, SocialDesignZine was blocked in Iran.”

In the fall of 2009, Green Bird asked Kunz if she knew of a venue that would be interested in exhibiting the posters collected on SocialDesignZine. Kunz then brought the works to the attention of SVA and soon the planning for “Where Is My Vote?” began.

Visual Arts Gallery

601 West 26 Street, 15th floor

New York, NY 10001

212.592.2145
The Visual Arts Gallery is SVA’s premier exhibition facility. Located in Chelsea on the 15th floor of the landmark Starrett-Lehigh Building, it comprises four state of the art galleries and a large terrace with a commanding view of Lower Manhattan and the Hudson River. Staffed by six full-time professionals, Visual Arts Gallery offers select students the opportunity to exhibit and sell their work in the same environment as some of the country’s leading artists–a number of whom have exhibited there as well.

Since the Visual Arts Gallery moved from 137 Wooster Street in Soho to its present location in 2004, it has exhibited works by renowned SVA alumni such as Renee Cox, Inka Essenhigh, Joseph Kosuth, Robert Lazzarini, Sol Lewitt, Vera Lutter, Elizabeth Peyton, Alexis Rockman, Collier Schorr, Lorna Simpson and Sara Sze,  Works by Richard Avedon, Milton Glaser, Anish Kapoor, Stefan Sagmeister, Sebastiao Salgado have also been exhibited at the Visual Arts Gallery.

SVA students of every discipline derive great educational benefit from being able to study the work of celebrated artists, hear them speak at lectures, or even get the chance to meet them in person — all right here at the College.

The Visual Arts Gallery is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and is closed Sunday and federal holidays. The gallery is accessible by wheelchair.  For more information, or to purchase student’s work (the gallery takes no commission), please call 212.592.2145.

For press inquiries, please call the Office of Communication at 212.592.2010 or email

Author, design historian and MFA Design Department Co-chair Steven Heller discusses the exhibition “Where Is My Vote? Posters for the Green Movement in Iran” on view at the Visual Arts Gallery through September 25, 2010. For more information, please visit .